Romance Column by Sandy Huseby

Giddyup! Step into the mind and heart of Sara Davidson as she shares her love story in Cowboy: A Love Story (HarperAudio, $18, 0694521353). At the start, you may be unsure whether you're reading novel as memoir or memoir as novel. But as you read on, you'll simply be drawn into the joyful spirit of Sara as she explores a love affair that sounds more unlikely than any fiction. They meet in...

Romance Column by Sandy Huseby

Swann in love in the garden A beloved childhood story inspired E. L. Swann to write her adult homage to The Secret Garden. Night Gardening (Brilliance audio, $24.95, 1567408257) is a lushly drawn love story as luminous as white flowers under moonlight. The emotional lives of both landscape gardener Tristan Mallory and Maggie Flaherty Welles have lain fallow for decades. Tristan is building a...

Audio Column by Sandy Huseby

Swann in love in the garden A beloved childhood story inspired E.L. Swann to write her adult homage to The Secret Garden. Night Gardening (Hyperion, $16.95, 0786864982) is a lushly drawn love story as luminous as white flowers under moonlight. The emotional lives of both landscape gardener Tristan Mallory and Maggie Flaherty Welles have lain fallow for decades. Tristan is building a pretentious...

Romance Column by Sandy Huseby

Historical author Kristin Hannah breaks new ground in her powerful exploration of a woman rediscovering herself in On Mystic Lake. Annie Colwater's routine life is shattered when, after putting their daughter Natalie on a plane for study in London, her husband Blake tells her he's in love with a junior law associate.Annie's father Hank once gave her a compass so that she could...

Romance Column by Sandy Huseby

A match made in Texas Mix one marriage-shy bachelor guardian with a lady entrepreneur of independent spirit, stir in a trio of nieces determined to unite them, and you've got a recipe for The Bad Luck Wedding Cake by Geralyn Dawson. Claire Donovan and Tye McBride each need to marry. He needs a mother for his nieces, she needs a husband to take the curse off the family's secret magic ingredient...

Romance Column by Sandy Huseby

Summer is a state of mind that lingers in these light romantic tales told by three popular romance authors in That Summer Place. Overworked, weary businesswoman Catherine Winslow returns to Rainshadow Lodge in Puget Sound in Old Things by Jill Barnett. There she confronts Michael Packard, her first summer romance, but this time, romance is crowded by Catherine's two daughters, Aly and Dana...

Romance Column by Sandy Huseby

L'amour in the French Quarter Stella Cameron brings the decadent underbelly of New Orleans's most infamous neighborhood to life in her latest novel, French Quarter. Here, sinners rule and even saints are tempted. Celina Payne and Jack Charbonnet must preserve the integrity of Dreams, a foundation that grants wishes to dying children. But Dreams has become a nightmare after the murder of its...

Romance Column by Sandy Huseby

Flower Power Emerge from the darkness into the light of Sunflower (Simon ∧ Schuster, $22, 0684837676) by Martha Powers just don't expect to leave suspense and terror far behind. Sheila Brady is a single mom who's moved to the small Wisconsin town of River Oaks to escape the dangers of urban policework. But the community, which prides itself on its annual Sunflower festival celebrating the...

Romance Column by Sandy Huseby

She is the woman credited as the founding mother of the modern historical romance, and in The Elusive Flame, Kathleen Woodiwiss once again sets the standard for lush, evocative storytelling. The son of Captain Brandon Birmingham and Heather Simmons whose own story enchanted readers in The Flame and the Flower captains his own ship and his fate as he meets Cerynise Kendall once again. Beau...

Romance Column by Sandy Huseby

Who says there's no justice? Could there be a snake lower than Slick Waynick? He's about to flatfoot out of town, stranding Arliss Mallard on their wedding day. Fortunately Gideon Forbes stands by the bride and marries her in the heartwarming western, A Kiss to Dream On, by Stephanie Mittman. But the I do's are just the beginning. Not only is the bride pregnant, but the groom is a deputy...